Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Realty Center, one of Chattanooga's biggest real estate agencies, recognized its top agents and announced three leadership promotions during the company's annual awards breakfast last week.
With over 482 home sales in 2017, The Edrington Team in the downtown office was the top team in the South for the Berkshire Hathaway brand and was one of the top 10 teams for the brand nationwide. The Edrington Team has been in the Chairman's Circle of top selling real estate teams for 11 straight years.
Realtor Linda Brock, long the leader in Chattanooga's luxury homes market, was once again the top Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices individual agent in the South with sales volume of more than $70 million in 2017. She has been the top individual sales leader at Realty Center for 20 years running.
Also recognized last week was the largest cohort of Chairman's Circle honorees in the 36-year history of Realty Center, including The Lawrence Team, The Hamilton Group, Team Clayton Taylor, Kevin Wamack, Travis Close Team, Diane Burke, Team Blazek, Ned Weigel and The Burns Team.
The firm's Rising Star for 2017 is Christa French, a first-year agent who works in the East Brainerd office of Berkshire Hathaway.
Byron Kelly, president of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in Chattanooga, said the honorees helped lead the 180-agent firm to total property sales last year of $440 million, up from $415 million in the previous year. The average home price of houses sold by Berkshire Hathaway also increased to $230,000 last year, Kelly said.
"We had another great year and we hope to continue that in 2018," Kelly said. "In the low inventory market we are now in, it's not so easy to just look online and pick out the house you think you may want. Realtors know how to find houses you may not have thought you were interested in buying and finding the right fit. People have equity in their homes and they want to sell, but often they don't know what or how they can buy their next home and that's where as Realtors we need to step up our game and find the right house fit."
Kelly said the company will be led in that effort by some new managers recently appointed to new positions.
Mark Blazek, a former president of the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors, is the new sales manager of the Hixson branch office after a 20-year tenure as a leading Realtor there.
Vanessa Mercer has been named chief communications officer at the home office and Neal Spann has been appointed talent coordinator for the entire five office firm.